AV is in the thick of IT

It is time to stop hiding, AV/IT convergence is already here

The market is catching up, industry press, consultants, integrators are all starting to see the importance of embracing the fact that AV is now an IT concern. The minute you plug a CAT5 cable into the back of a piece of technology and plug the other end into an Ethernet socket you are making that technology a part of your IT network.

It is as simple as that.

I have been privileged to work for well over a decade in AV and IT marketing and since moving to Tripleplay it has been interesting to see how my two previous lives have converged. The past years have shattered any illusion that AV can sit on an overlay network, unconnected to IT systems; it is time to embrace the convergence or fall by the wayside.

Speaking to the AV User Group in Amsterdam prior to the ISE show I discussed several new IT features in our solution, enhancing the already strong IT integration we do with our product.

I discussed our understanding of AV as an IT solution that needs to integrate into security systems, that needs redundancy and failover, has to integrate into control systems, operate in virtualised environments and must be globally, centrally manageable.

While I discussed this I was pleased to observe a number of nodding heads. Our foresight seems to fall in line with others’ thinking and expectations.

AV Managers are a wonderful breed of people, constantly looking at ways to enhance the working environment and looking for new innovations, the IT side of things is something they will pick up quite easily and will be happy to work on with their IT teams.

Is the industry as ready as they are to make that step too? I fear not for some, but time may prove me wrong.

We were fortunate to see this shift early, we’re a software manufacturer and the shift was easy for us, launching our Next Generation IPTV platform a couple of years back has made my life as a marketer much easier; I can face this challenge head on knowing the business can back me up.

The future of AV is going to be an interesting one; we’re glad to be in the thick of IT.